To Each His Own
by reniRCx
Summary: My take on the development of Adam and Eli's friendship, from knowing nothing about each other to reading comic books together in the middle of the hallway. Kind of a series of oneshots type thing. Own nothing, please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So, this is my take on how Adam and Eli's friendship evolved from "Who **_**are **_**you?" to them knowing each other's big secrets. This takes place sometime after "I just don't know what to do with myself." **

Eli got out of school nearly an hour late, no thanks to that damn make-up math test. Skipping class to hang out in his car was simply habit, but he made a mental note to keep track of tests and other things teachers thought were important.

As he walked out of the school toward Morty, he saw that Adam kid from English class and the Deadheads concert sitting on one of the steps, studying intently. Out of curiosity, Eli glanced over to see what he was reading.

"You're kidding me," he said out loud, now intently looking over his shoulder. "You read those comics?"

"Only religiously," Adam replied sarcastically. "I didn't think anyone at this school was into them."

"I think you're right. Mostly," Eli replied. "So what are you doing reading the best comics in the world in the school parking lot?"

"I missed the bus, so I'm just waiting here until my brother gets out of football practice," he said, turning a page of the comic book.

Eli raised his eyebrows. "Isn't that like two hours from now?"

"I've got a bag full of these babies. And I'm a slow reader."

"Now, how does a sophomore who claims to be a slow reader get into eleventh-grade advanced English?" Eli asked.

"I look at the pictures," Adam replied. "And I'm in eleventh-grade advanced English because my mom's an English teacher."

That made sense. To Eli, Adam had never seemed like one of those people obsessed with grades and other academic stuff, like some others in their English class.

"Hey, do you want to come over to my house and hang out? It probably beats the parking lot," Eli said impulsively. Adam was interesting despite all the weird-ass remarks and stuff, and had good taste in music and comic books.

"I don't know. My mom will be here in a couple hours," Adam replied.

"No English homework tonight," Eli persuaded.

"Um," Adam thought for a minute, glancing at the comic book he was still holding and then slipping it into his backpack. "Sure."

"Great. Morty's right over there," Eli said, leading the way.

"No way. _This _is your car? Sweet!" Adam exclaimed.

"This is Morty." Eli was pleased. His innovative choice in transportation had earned him more weird stares and whispered comments than actual appreciation. He patted Morty's hook affectionately. "She is pretty sweet."

"You call your car 'she?'" Adam asked, getting in the passenger side.

"Rule number one if you want to hang out with me: do not knock the car. Do not knock the color of the car, the interior decoration of the car, or my pet names for the car. Got it?" Eli sounded dead serious, but now he was smirking.

"Got it," Adam replied. He timidly pushed the "on" button for the stereo, but to no avail.

"Don't bother. It's probably broken," Eli said as he pulled out of the Degrassi parking lot.

It took only a few minutes of full of banter and wisecracks to reach Eli's house. Eli parked the hearse in front of the garage and both boys got out.

"This is the first floor. Up those stairs is the second floor. And this," Eli opened a nondescript door that led downstairs to a basement, "is the interesting part."

Adam followed Eli downstairs, still carrying his backpack. "Whoa," he said as Eli flicked the lights on. Eli smirked at his reaction.

The walls of the finished basement were painted black, but it was hard to see under dozens of posters for bands, video games, movies, and everything else imaginable. Adam was proud to realize that he recognized almost all of them.

"We moved here two months ago. I finished crafting this about a week ago," Eli said, breaking the silence instigated by Adam's awe.

"Didn't know you were into interior decorating," was all Adam could manage.

"That and working on Morty just about makes up my life," Eli replied. "So Adam, how do you feel about video games?"

"They're vile things. Rot your brain," Adam answered immediately. Eli just looked at him, trying to divine if he was being serious or not. "What've you got?"

"Why are you so good at this?" Eli asked after an hour of trying to keep up with Adam in one of his favorite racing games.

"I play bass guitar. I have nimble fingers," Adam replied as he obliterated the computer generated character ahead of him. They crossed the finish line first and fourth.

"My mom's going to be wondering where I am," Adam said, setting down his X-box controller and stretching his cramped fingers from the marathon race. "What time is it?"

"5:45," Eli said, glancing at the miniscule clock on the wall opposite the television.

"Crap. Drew's practice got out fifteen minutes ago," Adam said. "Would you mind driving me home? My cell phone died this morning, and my mom's kind of a worrier."

"Sure," Eli said, throwing his own controller on the ground and turning off the TV. "Although, are you sure this 'worrier' mom of yours would appreciate you showing up in a hearse?"

"A hearse with a skull for a hood ornament," Adam added. "Wait, that doesn't count as knocking the car, does it?"

Eli frowned, debating this for a second. "Not coming from you," he decided.

"Good," Adam said, than he caught sight of the clock again. "Ah, I really should get going."

"Go get in the hearse," Eli replied, following his friend up the stairs with a smirk.

**A/N: So what'd ya think? I don't like the way I ended it, but I'm probably going to write a few more of these, cumulating with how Adam knew about Julia way before Clare did. Please please please please please please review! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This one takes place any time between "Try Honestly" and "My Body is a Cage" **

"Hi," Adam said nonchalantly to Eli's legs as he passed. Eli was underneath his car in the middle of the school parking lot, a position Adam would never expect to see anyone but Eli in.

"Hello?" Adam asked when Eli didn't move or respond. "Eli?" Tentatively, he kicked one of the legs sticking out from under the truck.

Eli jumped- bad idea when there's about six inches separating you from a wall of metal above your head. He pushed his headphones onto his shoulders from his ears and crawled out from underneath the car.

Adam was standing there, leaning against Morty's hood. "You do realize you're in the school parking lot, right?" he asked as Eli stood up.

"If Morty decides to break down in the school parking lot, then I have to fix her in the school parking lot," Eli said. "What's so great about this place to you?"

Adam shrugged. "They're amusing. People do interesting things in parking lots."

"Okay, stop," Eli said, holding up a hand and deciding to spare himself from whatever weird comment Adam was about to make. "Change the subject. So, um, how are you doing on the thematic essay for English?"

"I'll start it tonight," Adam promised himself.

Eli smirked. "It's due tomorrow."

"It's…ugh," Adam slapped his forehead. "I thought we had like two weeks."

"Actually, Dawes gave it to us three weeks ago," Eli corrected.

"I'm totally screwed," Adam moaned. "How far are you on yours?"

"Finished," Eli said proudly.

"Well, what did you write about?" Adam prompted.

"The fact that a few million years after aliens come to destroy Earth with nukes, cockroaches will become gigantic because of all the radiation and form a mutiny against the aliens. Wait no, that was my paper for science."

"Come on, Eli, not helpful. I really need to get this done."

"Tell you what. Let's walk down to The Dot, get some food, and talk about the essay. Maybe Morty'll have fixed herself by the time we get back."

"The assignment is to write about an experience that changed you for the better," Adam read from the assignment paper in the slightly crowded café. "So seriously? What did you write about?"

"How trying out for the baseball team in seventh grade and not making it taught me humility and I learned to respect others," Eli replied.

"Really?" Eli had never seemed like the athletic type.

"Of course. Well it never happened, but that's what I wrote about."

"It's supposed to be about something that really happened in your life. Won't Mrs. Dawes be able to tell?" Adam asked.

"Clare says it's pretty convincing," Eli replied.

"Why didn't you just write about something true?" Adam asked, genuinely interested.

"Because I couldn't think of anything profound. I doubt Mrs. Dawes would appreciate an essay about how I discovered the best comic books of all time," Eli said.

"Ooh…what if I wrote about how my excellent English teacher this year encouraged me to develop my writing skills and stuff?" Adam grinned at this idea.

"No way. That is beyond unrealistic. Suck-up," Eli teased.

"Well, then what do I write about?" Adam asked again.

"You're the one being a proponent of writing the actual assignment," Eli observed. "Just write something about your life."

"My life is boring," Adam complained. "I can't write this paper. I'm doomed."

"Clare wrote about Fortnight fanfiction," Eli prompted. And how writing it's made her respect herself as a writer more and stuff."

Adam smiled. "But I don't write fanfiction. Everything I could write about is either too superficial or too personal."

"Go with the too personal," Eli said immediately. "It'll be easier to write, and Mrs. Dawes would love it. Win-win situation." Jeez, was his entire English class made up of incurable introverts?

"I don't think you understand exactly how personal I'm talking," Adam said.

"I don't know about that. I do have personal experiences, the only problem is that none of them have changed me for the better," Eli said with a slight smirk. "Just think about a good trait you have and how you got it."

Adam nodded. "You know what? I think I know what I'm going to write about," he said, smiling.

"Great. Well, good luck. Don't forget you MLA header," Eli warned sarcastically. "I should go, I think I left Morty unlocked."

"No one would want to steal that thing," Adam couldn't resist saying.

Eli almost responded defensively to the latest in a series of far too many cracks about his car, but rolled his eyes instead. "Have fun with that paper. See you tomorrow."

"I will, thanks. Bye."

_At first, I thought Degrassi was going to be like all the other schools- full of ignorance and open bullying, stares and rude questions. And it is. Sometimes. But here, I've found real friends who I know will accept me for who I really am. _

**A/N: So how was this one? Am I characterizing them okay? Please review! **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Here's installment number three. It takes place during and just after "My Body is a Cage." More Clare in this one. **

Eli watched Adam walk away before setting off for his own first-period class. He was surprised and impressed that Adam had been able to keep a secret that huge for so long. And it explained all the weird stuff about Adam- why he was in remedial gym, why he made those weird remarks to assert that he knew things he couldn't possibly know anything about.

Eli had made a couple dumb jokes in response to the revelation, and after a minute of processing, Clare had joined in. Things would be even better between the three of them now.

Adam left the table happier than he'd been in months. He had friends who could accept him, and a hot girl in recreation class willing to flirt with him. Degrassi would definitely be better than the last school.

Of course, things only got worse from there. The bullies, his own mother's pressure, and finally trying to change back to Gracie.

He got through the morning as Gracie. Recreation, Spanish, math, technology. He made it all the way to fifth period, barely able to stand the whispers and the stares and the _wrongness _of it all. Adam had packed the lighter for a reason.

In that whirl of anxiety and loneliness and pain, Clare found him. Adam tried to cover the newly acquired burn mark, but he knew she saw.

"Let's just sit here, okay?" Clare said, taking a seat on the wooden bench outside of the office and taking her phone out. "We can get you some regular clothes, and everything will be okay."

A few minutes after Clare texted him, Eli came down the hallway with a masculine sweatshirt and jeans. "Where'd you get those?" Adam asked, taking them in relief.

"Adam my friend, what you don't know can't hurt you," Eli said with a smirk. Adam couldn't keep from smiling.

"Seriously, where did those come from?" Clare asked Eli when Adam went down the hall to the bathroom to change.

"The lost and found by the gym. But Adam doesn't need to know that," Eli replied.

Adam came back a few minutes later, dressed in the slightly too big clothes. Even without his hat, he looked happier and more comfortable.

"There you are," Clare said, smiling at him.

"Thanks, you guys," Adam said. "I don't even know why I tried to do that. I can't. I just can't."

"You don't have to," Eli encouraged.

"Well, now all that's left is to convince my mom," Adam cringed. "She was so excited when I told her I was going to try to go back. Now she'll just be disappointed. Again."

"This is who you are. Your mom doesn't have a say in that," Eli defended. "If this is your decision, she'll eventually warm up to it."

"Maybe. Maybe not," Adam sighed.

"You're a great person. You're nice, loyal, unassuming, and you don't care what people think of you. _That _is who you are," Eli assured his friend.

"Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?" Adam asked, starting to feel uncomfortable with the subject matter.

"Class comes second to a friend in need," Eli said, smirking.

"Class comes second to _anything _with you," Clare teased. "Speaking of, English starts in a few minutes. Do you want to stay here or go home to process things?"

"I don't want to face my mom yet. I'm staying," he decided.

"Great. Let's all go admire that C I'm going to get on the story assignment," Eli said, standing up.

Adam grinned and followed his best friends down the hallway. Despite all the problems, he would make this school work.

The next day, Adam was back for good. "Would you mind coming over to my house after school?" he asked Eli and Clare in English. "I talked to my mom, and she has something she wants to do. I think you guys should be there for it."

"Sure," Eli agreed immediately, before Clare had the chance to ask any questions.

Eli and Clare stood a little ways away from the Torres family at the bonfire, but after it was done, Adam's parents and Drew left. "So now what?" Eli asked as they stood around the bonfire, where remnants of the clothes were still shriveling.

"We could roast marshmallows," Adam suggested.

"We don't have any marshmallows," Eli pointed out.

"Actually, we do," Adam said, grinning and pulling a half-full bad of them out off his vest pocket.

Half an hour later, the marshmallows were mostly gone- either eaten or thrown into the fire so they could watch them fry.

"Should we put this fire out?" Clare asked, anxious to go home and finally start her homework.

"Nah. If we start a forest fire, someone else will see it," Eli replied, standing up and starting to walk away.

"I don't think it would be too much trouble to put it out before it becomes a forest fire," Adam decided, siding with Clare.

"Whatever," Eli said. They threw dirt on the remaining embers and left for Eli's car.

After dropping Clare off, Eli drove back to Adam's house. "So are you glad this is all turning out okay, or what?" Eli asked rhetorically.

"I'm glad that I finished my English homework in study hall so now I can go read the new installment of my comics," Adam replied.

"Speaking of English homework, what did you end up writing that essay about?"

"I wrote it about coming to Degrassi, and how much better it is than my last school. Which isn't really true, but I got an A on it."

"Cool," Eli said. "Well, see you tomorrow. Have fun with that new comic."

"You bet," Adam replied. "See ya!"

**A/N: I'm not quite as happy with this one as I was with the others. I don't think I did very well in skirting around the canon stuff. Oh well. More coming soon. Review please ! :D **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Well, here's the next one. Very sneakily placed in the middle of Still Fighting It (1). This was originally going to be the conclusion, but I may do some more once I've processed this week's episodes. Without further ado, **

Eli's cell phone beeped again, and without even making sure it was who he knew it was, he shut it off instead of responding or even looking at it. This was all going way too fast, and Eli wanted nothing more than some alone time with his car.

After ten minutes of relative peace and quiet (except for the heavy metal blasting through his headphones) there was a knock on the car window. Eli closed his eyes, as though it would make the inevitable go away. _I can't talk to her yet…_ When he finally looked out the passenger side window, he got a pleasant surprise. His visitor was not Clare, but Adam.

Eli turned his music off and unlocked the car doors. Maybe what he really needed right now was someone to talk to, and Adam was as good a person as any. No, he was a _better _person to talk to than anyone else Eli could think of.

"Something wrong with your phone?" Adam asked as he slid into the car. "You didn't answer my text."

"It died," Eli lied in reply, not bothering to think of a more creative excuse.

"So, did you just forget? That we were going to meet at The Dot after school?" Adam asked, adding the second part when Eli looked confused.

"Right. Damn it. Sorry," Eli said listlessly. "I just…have a lot on my mind right now, I guess."

"What is it?" Adam asked straightforwardly.

"Promise not to judge?" Eli asked seriously.

"Dude. Do you even have to ask?" Adam asked sarcastically.

Eli smirked a little bit. "It's about Clare."

"What about Clare?" Adam responded robotically. "Or, does it have anything to do with the passionate kiss you two shared this morning?"

"I killed my last girlfriend," Eli said, careful to keep his voice blank.

Adam, having promised not to judge, didn't respond but nodded to let Eli continue.

"Her name was Julia. We were together for almost two years. One night, we had this huge fight. It was dark. She took off on her bike. And she got hit by a car," Eli spilled, sentences running together.

Adam took a moment, processing everything he's just been told. "And am I right to assume Clare doesn't know about any of this?" Never having had a real relationship, Adam wasn't sure exactly what advice to give.

"Yeah," Eli replied. "Sorry to unpack on you like this."

"It's fine. It's totally fine," Adam assured him, remembering how great it had felt once he'd finally felt comfortable enough to reveal his biggest secret to Eli and Clare. Now he had the opportunity to have a similar moment with his friend, and he wasn't going to misuse it. "Are you scared to tell her or something?"

"Not scared. I just don't even know what kind of reaction I _want. _She'll probably just get freaked out."

"I think you're underestimating her," Adam said immediately. "You can't know until you tell her."

"You know what? I don't need to. We kissed for a school project. It was nothing. Nothing _has _to happen now," Eli said, reassuring himself.

"If that's what you want to believe," Adam replied hesitantly. "But you might have to convince Clare."

Eli didn't reply, just looked out the front window. Noticing Eli's phone on the console, he picked it up and tried turning it on. Unsurprisingly, it stayed on and had nearly full charge.

Five unread text messages. Not including the one Adam had sent.

"You can't ignore her forever, you know," Adam warned.

Eli smirked. "Watch me."

"I'm really, really not the best person to ask about relationships, but I think you should just tell her," Adam ventured. "It's Clare. You're friends. It is disturbingly easy to see that you both want to be…something more."

"This stays between us, okay?" Eli confirmed unnecessarily.

"Cross my heart," Adam agreed solemnly. "So what are you going to do?"

"Wait," Eli replied. "If I don't have to tell her, I won't."

"Then why'd you tell me?" Adam asked curiously.

"Well, no offense but I'm not romantically interested in you," Eli said without hesitation. They both laughed, breaking up a little bit of the tension from the weighty conversation.

"Good to know," Adam replied. Hearing two quick beeps of a car horn, he turned around. "Crap. Uh, that's my mom. I've gotta go, sorry." Adam picked up his backpack and opened the door. "I hope this all turns out okay."

"I hope your mom doesn't notice which of these cars you just jumped out of," Eli replied. He pulled the passenger door closed and repositioned his headphones in his ears. The conversation with Adam hadn't changed the situation one bit, but it felt good to know that he had someone he could trust to know.

**A/N: Soooo…that's it. I may write another part based on Purple Pills, but don't expect it. I really enjoyed writing this, and thank you all for your reviews! Can't wait until the next half of the season in October! :D **


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